Clay Maitland

On a quest for quality in shipping

Oil and the artic: The maritime part of a high-stakes tug of war

The complexity of how oil gets produced involves exploration, development, technology, maritime transport, pipelines and lots and lots of money. And politics. Continue reading

Our new Hamburg rules

Attendees at the Global Maritime Environmental Congress (GMEC) held in Hamburg earlier this month were able, during the course of an excellent programme, to discuss many of the maritime issues that demand to be addressed in a constructive way: openly, frankly and publicly. Continue reading

What rights do foreign seafarers have in US?

Many foreign visitors to the United States have experienced a degree of discomfort, during what are described as “customs formalities”, that adds a ringing climax to the customary torment of modern travel. Continue reading

A [belated] welcome to the Portfire 40 initiative

When we first set out to establish this blog we put the key values of Clean seas, safe ships and environmental protection as our mantra and launched a ‘ginger group’ to convey our thoughts , but we really wanted to use the maritime community to drive these goals and help shape opinion. Continue reading

Running the risk

So this week, I’m in Hamburg for the bi-annual shipbuilding and ship machinery behemoth that is SMM and have been kindly asked by Jochen Deerberg to speak at his new environmental conference that runs parallel to the exhibition. Continue reading

Wi-fi in ports is a must for seafarers

I am delighted to see that my fellow World Maritime University board member and crewing agency head, Doris Ho is making good progress with her campaign to get seafarers access to wifi while they are stuck aboard their vessels in ports. Continue reading